A Crest Hill man is the sixth member of a self-described “Boy Lovers” group to be convicted of child pornography possession and distribution.
Patrick Fitzgerald, United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Special Agent Robert D. Grant on Monday said Mark McGill, 27, was found guilty of one count of distribution and one count of possession of child pornography after using his home to transfer and store child porn in 2009.
The jury deliberated for just over an hour after McGill’s four-day trial, according to a press release issued by the FBI. McGill is federal custody and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years on the distribution count. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on the child porn possession count, along with a maximum fine of $250,000 on each count.
U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall is scheduled to sentence McGill on July 25.
McGill was one of four Chicago-area men arrested in September 2009 as part of an undercover investigation into an informal group of self-described “Boy Lovers” by the FBI’s Innocent Images Task Force.
At McGill’s trial, another defendant testified that McGill attended at least one party with members of the group, during which the men showed each other child pornography. According to the testimony, McGill gave the other defendant a thumb drive containing 3,500 pornographic images and 60 videos of nude minor boys, many engaged in sexual acts, in August 2009.
The same images and videos were recovered from McGill’s computer, which was seized by agents executing a search warrant.
A total of six defendants in Chicago have now been convicted as a result of the “Boy Lovers” investigation, according to the FBI’s Chicago office.
Related Topics: Crest Hill, FBI Chicago, Mark McGill, and child pornography